Amit Shah calls upon people to ‘throw out’ Congress govt

BD Kasniyal

Pithoragarh, December 7

In his third public meeting in Uttarakhand, BJP national president Amit Shah today lambasted the Congress government in the state and appealed to people to oust it.

He alleged that the government had broken all records of corruption since the formation of the state.

The rally was held at Haldwani on the culmination of BJPs ‘Parivartan Yatra’ in the Kumaon region.

He said people’s aspirations could be fulfilled only through systemic change. The yatra may have come to an end but the process of change to oust the Harish Rawat government and form a BJP government had just started.

“By parivartan we don’t just mean change of a chief minister. We mean systemic change with the departure of one party and the advent of another at the helm. When we appeal to you for change we want you to dislodge a corrupt government and install a transparent government, like the one being run by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Centre, which can usher in development, give an unprecedented boost to tourism and stop migration from hills,” he said.

In his 20-minute address at MB College ground in Haldwani, the BJP national president said the state was created by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to develop the region.

He said Vajpayee did not dream of an Uttarakhand where liquor and mining mafia called the shots. Shah said Vajpayee had envisioned a developed hill state with a strong economy based on tourism from where people did not migrate elsewhere in search of livelihood.

“Atalji created the state while Narendra Modi will get it rid of corruption and change it,” he said while addressing a crowd of over 10,000 people.

Shah announced that if the party comes to power in the state, it would construct a four-lane road to the Char Dhams and link all the Dhams and the main spots of the state with railways.

Shah blamed Chief Minister Harish Rawat for alleged corrupt conduct and emphasised on achievements of the Union Government on various fronts. He also touched upon the demonetisation issue and said the measure had made only black money hoarders unhappy.

“The move has been praised the world over. Only those who have amassed black money are unhappy about it,” Shah claimed.

Terming Congress’ “newfound concern” about implementation of OROP as fake, he said the party’s failure to implement it despite being in power shows how little it cared for the Armed Forces.

“It is the BJP Government at the Centre which brought the Bill on One Rank, One Pension for ex-servicemen,” Shah said.

He pointed out that the massive crowds at his three rallies in the course of the yatra was an indication that people had made up their mind to throw a corrupt government out of power. He was confident that the BJP would win in the coming polls and form the next government with a two-thirds majority, Shah added.

Former Chief Ministers Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri, Bhagat Singh Koshiyari, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, state party general secretary in charge Shayam Jaju, BJP state president Ajay Bhatt and Union Minister of State for Textiles Ajay Tamta addressed the rally while a full galaxy of BJP leaders from the state attended it.

(With inputs from PTI)